Nick Saban recalls hilarious advice his aunt gave about playing Ole Miss, Eli Manning

Before Nick Saban was arguably the greatest college football coach of all time at Alabama, he was the up-and-coming head coach of the LSU Tigers. At that time, one of the hardest quarterbacks to game plan for in the SEC resided at Ole Miss — Eli Manning.

Luckily, Saban could always rely on his aunt’s advice to help him. Not that he always took it of course.

During Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference, Saban detailed the advice his late Aunt Katie gave him prior to an Ole Miss-LSU matchup in 2001.

“(Aunt Katie) used to send me a gameplan all the time, every week for every game, and she watched all the games on ESPN. When we were getting ready to play Ole Miss, she put in her gameplan letter to me that we should go no-huddle because they play, she called it a ‘radar defense,’ and it was going to confuse our quarterback,” stated Saban. “So, like always, I didn’t pay any attention to it and Eli played really well in the game and Rohan (Davey) had one of his worst games ever because of the confusion their defense called.

“We should’ve gone no-huddle like my aunt said. (Laughs) … I paid a little more attention to what she had to say (from there on out).”

Unfortunately for Saban, not listening to his aunt’s advice led to a 35-24 loss to Ole Miss that day.

Manning: ‘You gotta listen to the aunt!’

On an episode of Eli’s Places on ESPN+, Saban sat down with host Eli Manning to discuss the game in-question.

Saban explained his Aunt Katie was a postal worker from West Virginia who would send her weekly advice to through postcards.

“Aunt Katie, in West Virginia, who worked in the post office. She was probably in her 70s, probably almost 80,” said Saban. “She used to send me a game plan every week when I was the coach of LSU. It would just be a postcard type thing, and it would have tips to win the game.”

After reminiscing about the loss LSU received that day, Saban revealed his Aunt Katie’s reaction.

“She called me the next day, and said ‘I told you to go no huddle! You didn’t listen,'” said Saban.

Moreover, Manning threw for three touchdown passes that day. In response to Saban, Manning quipped “You gotta listen to the aunt!”

Finally, Nick Saban mentions that he told Manning’s father, legendary NFL and Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning, that he believes the youngest Manning brother could’ve had great success at LSU.

“I actually told your dad, if Eli had came to LSU, we would’ve won three national championship,” stated Saban.

While Saban ended his time at LSU with just one national championship, perhaps Manning and Aunt Katie could’ve helped him win a couple more.